Industrial resolution

A new regime has taken hold at Tastes in the past month. The company is moving forwards, and managing director Catriona Butcher has decided she can no longer afford to keep anyone on who isn't carrying their weight.

Butcher and functions co-ordinator Stephen Casewell spent the last few days of October clearing out the storeroom to make space for new crockery, glassware and other equipment. The pair have also gone through the foodstore.

"We're clearing out. We need more room. But I shouldn't have to do this, the chefs should do it," she says.

Butcher was unhappy with standards in the kitchen when head chef Julie Crane was on holiday. During this time she received some negative feedback from customers. "It showed us how much they [the chefs] were under her supervision," says Butcher.

To make matters worse, Crane has decided to leave Tastes. She is currently commuting to the company in central London from Maidstone in Kent and working more than 12 hours a day. And one of the second chefs, Chris Hickey, has also decided to leave.

The imminent departures have forced Butcher to try to recruit a new head chef, but this is not proving easy.

Butcher thought she had found the answer when an agency sent along a new chef for interview who had worked in France for five years, spent time in the USA and run his own business.

"We need someone in the kitchen to lead the team. He came through an agency which knows Tastes and after several interviews I felt he'd fit in well here," she says.

However, after accepting the job and fixing a salary of £18,000, the new chef didn't show up. Butcher rang the agency, only to be told that he had decided the position wasn't suitable.

Sous chef Mary Gilbert is now filling the head chef's shoes until after Christmas, but has said she is not interested in the position full-time.

"I'm not going to rush into anything, I'm looking for people who want to put effort and time into Tastes catering," says Butcher. She is so adamant about this that if she has to roll up her sleeves and get back in the kitchen herself, she'll do it.

"Getting the right team here is paramount, so if some people fall by the wayside then so be it," she adds.

To tide Tastes over Christmas, Butcher has taken on a temporary kitchen porter, but plans to take someone on full-time in the new year. Employing temporary staff saves the company money as Tastes will be closed for two weeks over Christmas.

Butcher has also managed to save money on drivers by taking on a temporary driver until Christmas. This means she won't incur the staff costs of two permanent drivers when quieter times come in January.

The Tastes vans are another area where Butcher is watching costs. Over the past few months they have both been serviced, costing a total of £800. In addition, new tyres, batteries, brakes and disk pads have cost the company more than £1,000.

"I'm monitoring the actual costs over the next year and then seeing if there is a big saving to be had from leasing as opposed to outright purchase," she says.

Once business picks up again after the "silly season", Butcher will sit down and decide what to do about vans, drivers and other members of staff.

A sound financial reason for holding off on appointing new permanent staff is that Butcher is waiting to see how much business her new business development manager, Martyn Priddle, generates.

So far it's looking good. Priddle started with Tastes at the beginning of last month and has already drummed up three bookings and two new prospective contracts for the company.

Despite his appointment, October has been a quiet month for Tastes. Butcher was hoping that two large functions for more than 350 people each would go some way to boosting October's figures. As it turned out, however, the anticipated numbers did not turn up at one of the functions.

Butcher has estimated October's turnover at £42,000 - £8,000 short if Tastes is to meet the year's target. She is bullish about the figures and confident Tastes will make up the shortfall over the next two months.

"We have £207,000 to take in the next six months, which is £50,000 - or near enough - per month for October, November and December," she says.

November and December are looking healthy, with eight bookings already for parties of more than 100 people including one for 300 people.

The figures for the past six months, which have just come back from the accountant, are more positive. Food costs for the period to the end of September at 23% were lower than Butcher had anticipated. This is because there is very little waste. Staff costs, too, came out lower than expected, at 26%.

Gross profit, at 44%, had improved compared with the figure for the whole of last year, which was 31%.

Net profit, on the other hand, was lower than last year's 19%, but Butcher is not worried because she has been ploughing a lot back into the business.

Next visit to Tastes will be on 18/25 December